@devinplombier yes Monster cables were the 💩 back in a day. My buddy still uses the speaker cables. M2.2s is the model. I had these and then upgraded to M2.4s the biwire version when I bought a pair of B&W N803 speakers.
The speaker cables were not bad but the RCA interconnects had a death grip. I ended up twisting one of the rca jacks off on the squeezebox (that thing was flimsy)
What Does 80 Grand Get You Nowadays?
A system was playing in a shop. I sat down and pretty soon I thought gosh, I’m glad my system sounds better than this.
That system - just preamp, amp, and speakers - cost about $80,000 new.
I didn’t make the speakers at first, because Sabrinas look far better than the usual Wilson house look. They were driven by one of those new high-end Marantz amps, and I don’t think that was a match made in heaven. The Marantz was driven by a Dan D’Agostino pre that looked like a Minion had been crushed in a hydraulic press. Audiophile music was streaming, but I did not catch whence issued those dulcet ones and zeroes.
I suppose that system constitutes high-end for some. Now, it certainly sounded competent, but it also sounded boring. I thought, this is the Audi SUV of audio: competent and boring.
Conversely, I was impressed and pleased to no end that the end sound of my modest system from the last century could play in the same league as an almost-six figure modern system, and do so in a more engaging and fun fashion - to my ears, at least.
I’m biased, of course; and I am certain many high-priced systems out there leave mine in the dust. Still, I would have thought $80,000 guaranteed a better baseline sound.
How about you, have you heard a lot of gear whose sound was way out of whack with its price?
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@devinplombier, you have a system that rivals near-six figure systems. What do you have? I apologize for questioning whether you were a troll. |
Well, let's all just be glad that there are those with deeper pockets to buy such systems and hopefully keep manufacturers pushing the envelope of what - at least in theory - should sound better. Hopefully all those refinements will someday make it down to those of us with less disposable income. So, good for them. If I had a cool $100K to spend on a system, I think I'd do a LOT of shopping around and comparisons. But then, we all do that anyway don't we, regardless of how much we intend to spend? That's half the fun of this hobby or affliction we all have. Enjoying music is the other half. Have fun! Life is too short for bad coffee or bad sound. |
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